ARB2117AB (PARB2117AB0) Amana Refrigerator - Instructions

Philips head screwdriver and ten minutes was all it took! I removed the two screws that hold the icemaker assembly in place, then pulled it out a little and disconnected the electrical plug freeing the icemaker assembly. Then I snapped the external parts off my old icemaker assembly and snapped them on the new icemaker assembly. Installing the new icemaker assembly was just as fast and easy. I snapped the electrical plug into the new icemaker assembly, then screwed in the two screws. It was making ice shortly thereafter. Glob free ice! I'm glad I didn't call a repairman. I probably saved a hundred bucks. A ten year old could accomplish this simple and easy task. No wonder the Maytag repairman has time on his hands.

There is already a lot of good advice on this web site and others on how to diagnose and do this repair. I'll add a few additional comments that might be helpful.

I wanted to confirm that my old thermostat was in fact bad. I did this by disconnecting the two connectors and connecting them to each other to bypass the thermostat. This is like having the thermostat always closed. With the back panel still open so I could see the frozen coils I plugged the fridge back in and turned the defrost timer knob with a screwdriver to get to a defrost cycle. I could then see the heater element slowly melting the ice. This is of course not a safe way to operate the fridge. Over time this would get too hot and damage the food or worse. I only did this for a few minutes to see the system operating. I did not melt all the ice at that time. Also, it is of course dangerous to plug the fridge in with the panel open, so a great deal of caution is advised.

When I got my new thermostat I wanted to confirm that it worked before going through the install procedure. To do this I cooled it down and then used an ohm-meter to see that the circuit was closed. The important thing I found out is that ice-water, even 2 parts ice, one part cold water, was not cold enough to do this. Only when I put the thermostat into a cold freezer for a while did it get cold enough to close the circuit. I did this side by side with my old thermostat and saw that it was in face bad -it never closed the circuit.

This part from Part Select was an exact match for this freezer-on-bottom Whirlpool refrigerator. The connectors were identical so I did not have to solder wires together as others have need to do.

Some people get the ice off of the coils with a hair dryer. For me this could take half an hour. What worked better and much faster was spraying warm water on the ice with an old spray bottle. This adds extra water to the mix, but it did not overflow the drain pan. Even if it did, it would be easily mopped up if you can roll the fridge out.

One last thing. I suspect this thermostat broke in the winter, but with the dry air the fridge worked for a long time. Once summer hit and the house got humid, the coils iced up quickly.

Good Luck!

After moving the refrigerator away from the wall I removed the cover on the lower back of the unit by removing the screws that held it in place. The condenser fan was not turning and there was heat build up in the area causing the refrigerator to not work properly creating elevated temperatures in both the freezer and regrigerator. Removal of three torx screws from the original motor was all it took to get the motor free. By turining it and working the fan blade around the mounting bracket I had the motor out in just a few minutes. Replacing the new motor was just as easy to reinstall. The fan was removed from the old motor and placed on the new for installation. The original motor was wired to accept a connector from the wiring harness of the refrigerator. I simply cut the connector off the wiring harness and stripped the insulation from the wires which easily allowed me to connet the wires of the motor and harness with two wire nuts. Three self tapping screws were used to hold the motor in place replacing the torx screws. Installed I plugged the unit in and immediately the fan started spinning as the unit came to life. Cleaned and replaced the cover over the back and slid back into its spot. Running as good as it did when it was new. Easy job to take care of.

The new Ice Maker Assembly arived in less than 24 hours. I was amazed that it came so fast.

I had already removed the old ice maker in order to get the modle number.

I just took two parts off of the old ice maker and quickly snapped them into place on the new ice maker. Then attached it to the refrigerator in less than 10 minutes. With in a few hours I had ice again !!!!!

I would definatly use partselect.com again.

Last night, I replaced the gasket of the bottom freezer drawer on my Amana refrigerator. It took me about 2 hours.

When I took my new gasket out of the package that it was mailed in, it had been folded and was all twisted. There were wrinkles in the area where the actual magnetic seal occurs. I tried to use a hair dryer to smooth out the wrinkles but the hair dryer just wasn't getting hot enough. I decided to install the gasket anyway hoping that the wrinkles would just get stretched out.

First I had to remove the drawer which is explained in the Amana manual. I had to remove two screws on the side the the drawer slides and then lift out the hanger for the door. Pulling out the old gasket was really easy but when I tried to push the new gasket it just wouldn't go in under the lip and I was afraid that it would get torn if I pushed it in with a screwdriver.

So I had to remove all 20 or so screws that hold the white plastic retaining liner in and hold the lip of the gasket. Then I had to slide a flat head screw driver in to lift up the liner and break the gluing effect of the expanding foam insulation used during manufacturing. Once I could freely lift up the liner about 1/4 inch, I was able to push the new liner in. The wrinkles were still there, which would have prevented a good seal. Fortunately I had a heat gun which I tested first on the old gasket. This worked wonderfully after the gasket was fully installed and did not melt the white plastic liner.

Once the gasket was installed and all 20 screws were tightened, I discovered that the door had been twisted a little and the left side of the drawer would hit first leaving a gap on the right side. By pushing on the right side some time it would stay but often it wouldn't. So I loosened the screws that hold the door on to the metal hangers that attached to the glides and then twisted the door while I tightened those screws.

The final fix was to tighten the leveling screws so that the top of the fridge leans back. This is recommended in Amana's instructions but had not been done for our fridge. This causes gravity to pull the drawer closed.

I don't mean to scare anyone away from doing this repair but it ended up being harder than I thought.

First I had to determine what was wrong. Obviously the compressor was working since the freezer was cold. Digging for awhile revealed that the evaporator coils for the freezer had frozen up into a solid block of ice. Then I had to figure out why. Tested the defrost heater in place--small resistance (~3 ohms), OK. Removed and tested the timer--unsure. Removed and tested the defrost thermostat--did not turn on when plunged in ice water or frozen with canned air (turn the can upside down--be careful!, you can instantly freeze-burn your skin), bad. Chose to purchase and replace both the timer and the thermostat. Took the opportunity to THOROUGHLY clean everything, front, back, and underneath. Found the drip tray transition piping cracked at the junction and replaced it with a cut-off funnel "glued" into place and to the underside piping with the RTV Silicone. When parts arrived, tested them and confirmed that the original timer was OK and the thermostat was bad. Installed the new thermostat (and went ahead and installed the new timer). NOTE: one connector on the thermostat was not identical to the orginal equipment. Rather than cut the refrig wiring, I chose to build a jumper with the original connector on one end and a new one for the new thermostat on the other. Buttoned everything back up, re-leveled it, and let it run for 24 hours at the manufacturer's recommended "first" settings (4 and 4) without being disturbed. Seemed fine, loaded it with food, everything is great including non-frozen veggies! (I suspect the ice was forming frequently and blocking the return from the refrig compartment, which is right next to the veggie drawer.)

Had to remove screws inside back of freezer panel, took off old thermostat. This one had a different plug on the end that wasn't compatible, so had to cut that off and wire it to the old plug end. Piece of cake. Put back panel back on and back in business. Hardest thing was getting the screws out!

I unplugged the fridge. Loosened the 2 top screws on the ice maker and removed the lower screw. I disconnected the wiring harness and removed the Ice maker. I removed the plastic timer cover in front. I then loosened the screws on the face of the ice maker and removed the broken ice stripper and replaced it with a new one. Re-tightened the screws on the face, installed the timer cover, plugged in the wiring harness, re-attached the ice maker. Plugged the fridge back in and walla, it was making ice in 30 minutes!

The old icemaker had a bad motor and would stall in the fill cycle causing my kitchen to flood on occasion.

The new one was so quiet, I thought it didn't work!

Anyway, one nutdriver and 5 minutes and I had the new one in there... It is so quiet, and I always have plenty of ice now!!!

Thanks!!!

Unplugged refrigerator. Removed lower back access panels and panel running up the back of refrigerator. Removed and disconnected old fan. Removed old fan motor from mounting bracket. Removed fan blade from old fan motor and placed on new fan motor. Connected new fan motor to power supply. Tested. Reinstalled.

tested bulb good ,replaced door switch first(least expensive)then ordered light socket and circuitboard.If clicking sound is heard replace circuitboard first to save on return shipping because the switch and socket where ok

I called the local Amana repair man, wanted $150 for a new ice maker because they could not get the part I needed. Found Partsselect.com and the part cost $17 with shipping. They saved me over $100. The repair was very easy too, just removed a couple of screws.

Thanks,
Matt

Took a putty knife and
Removed the old switch removed the spade terminals from the old switch and replaced them on the new switch and just pushed the new switch back in place

First unload the doors, and remove each door from the fridge and freezer. I placed the doors on the counter island and removed all the screws from around the perimiter with the battery drill. Lots of screws. The freezer door had some Ice accumulated in the insulation inside the door. I salvaged as much of the dry fiberglass and tossed the wet stuff. I cut some strips of fiberglass from a roll of 3.5" I had to replace the tossed insulation. The door seal installation went smoothly and the door rehanging was easy also.

I loosened the two top screws, removed the bottom screw, lifted up on ice maker and slid it off, unplugged the wire from refrig. I transfered the wire to the new icemaker, pluged it back in, placed it on the two screws, installed lower screw, tighten top screws. Total time spent less than 15 minutes. The ice maker cost $125.00 with freight. Sears wanted $374.00